While the American government may have chosen to subsidize the cost of DTV converter boxes during the recent transition to help antenna-equipped viewers continue to receive channels, Austrian regulators in Vienna want to help cablers better penetrate the digital marketplace and is willing to put their money (or their taxpayers' money) where their mouth is.

While well over half (58%) of all Austrian household have made the digital jump, most of its pay-TV viewers subscribe to a satellite service, not cable (unlike in the United States). Exactly how many Austrians are currently actually watching HD content in HD is not yet known.

To grow DTV market penetration on cable, the Austrian government will provide vouchers worth about $57 each to current analog cable customers who agree to transition to digital TV when they buy digital receivers. To qualify, the receiver must be suitable for HD reception (although a stipulation of earlier government grants requiring that receivers also must be capable of interactive services has been dropped).

The vouchers began circulating this week and will run until the end of next February, while supplies last. The government initiative will be limited to 33,333 boxes and a voucher assistance budget of $2.84 million. Unlike the American version of having to apply for vouchers through the mail or online and await delivery by mail, the Austrian vouchers (which will number far fewer than the many millions distributed in the U.S.) can be obtained from either the retailer or the affected cable company.

A crystal clear picture emerged Wednesday from a recent House subcommittee hearing on the status of the digital television transition: No one can agree on how many analog TVs there are, much less how many signal converters will be necessary to keep them working after analog broadcasting ends Feb. 17, 2009.

Pace Micro Technology the digital set-top box provider specializing in the development of emerging technologies across a variety of TV platforms, plans to unveil its Tahoe HD Digital Video Recorder STB at cable's National Show starting this weekend in San Francisco (Booth #5958). The new box includes SATA (serial a

The Consumer Electronics Association is joining with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing and the National Cable Television Association to help educate consumers about the digital transition, the benefits of HDTV, and the eventual analog cutoff in February 2009. CEA spokesman, Jeff Joseph, co